From the Publisher
Wandering in Strange Lands is in many ways a quintessentially American story. . . Jerkins makes plain that denying space for Black identities in history is itself a legacy as American as its original sins of racism and enslavement. By exploring the truth of that past with such integrity, this memoir enriches our future." — New York Times Book Review
"Jerkins weaves a vivid and painful backstory of Black people forced into enslavement in the American South. . .The book is filled with poignant examples from across multiple centuries, including those retold in classrooms and those relegated to forgotten parts of our country's consciousness. . .It's when Jerkins sews her familial threads with those poignant historical facts from deep in the archives of America that the book is most impactful. Equally heartbreaking and reaffirming are the trials and tribulations too many Black people in the United States have faced and somehow conquered, coming out more resilient on the other side." — USA Today
"Wandering in Strange Lands intertwines segments of past and present travel, as a reminder that the past is present in the U.S." — O, the Oprah Magazine
"The mass migration of 6 million Black Americans from the rural South to the North, West, and Midwest is given a deeply personal framing by writer Morgan Jerkins as she attempts to better understand her ancestors’ treacherous journey across America." — Vogue
"Traveling throughout the country, [Jerkins] explores the path her family took as well as her cultural identity as a black woman. Her desire to understand both her personal and cultural origins will inspire you to do the same." — Elle
"Morgan Jerkins has always been curious about her family tree and the roots of Black Americans. In 'Wandering in Strange Lands,' she traces her ancestry back 300 years and shares what she learned about the Great Migration, displacement, and disenfranchisement. The result is an eye-opening, well-researched portrait of Black life in America after slavery." — Hello Giggles
"Wandering in Strange Lands is a timely and riveting story about the Black American experience as told by a writer seeking to reclaim her roots by retracing her family's journey." — PopSugar
"Morgan Jerkins, author of the best-selling and acclaimed This Will Be My Undoing, sets out to discover her family’s roots in Wandering in Strange Lands. In doing so she paints a larger portrait of African American displacement and disenfranchisement during the Great Migration and its impact on her own life. . . Jerkins is a wonderfully articulate memoirist and critic as she shares her own quest to understand the hard truths and actions of her ancestors. . .Wandering in Strange Lands is revelatory, shocking, and affirming." — Al Woodworth, Amazon Book Review
"In Wandering in Strange Lands, Jerkins mixes reportage with personal reflection, taking readers through Southern spaces not often given visibility by those inhabiting or those who built the towns because they’ve since seen another type of colonization. Connecting her present with her past and investigating the ways DNA for Black people is not secular but spans many regions in the United States, Jerkins delves into a family history she didn’t understand but brings herself, and us, closer to." — Electric Literature
"Jerkins evades [the sophomore] slump with the release of her second book, [Wandering in Strange Lands] penning beautiful prose that is engaging, thought-provoking, and authentic. Following the release of her 2018 New York Times bestseller, This Will Be My Undoing, Jerkins hits another home run and leaves her readers asking new questions about the world in which we live." — Ms. Magazine
"For fans of “The 1619 Project,” The New York Times Magazine’s series that recently reexamined the legacy of slavery in the United States, this book is an interesting companion piece. For a long time, Jerkins’ family chose to look forward, not back. But what she found when she finally did retrace their steps was her true self. It had not been forgotten; it was just waiting to be discovered." — Bust Magazine
“[A] forthright and informative account. . . . Jerkins’s careful research and revelatory conversations with historians, activists, and genealogists result in a disturbing yet ultimately empowering chronicle of the African-American experience. Readers will be moved by this brave and inquisitive book.” — Publishers Weekly
“A thrilling, emotional, and engaging ride that almost commands the reader to turn the page, Wandering in Strange Lands is required reading, accurately widening the lens of American history.” — Booklist (starred review)
"A blend of reportage and memoir, this is just one story of many of this time—and one not to miss when it comes out." — Book Riot
“Driven by a need to understand her own identity, cultural critic Jerkins mounted an investigation into her family's tangled history, recounting in this candid memoir the surprising discoveries that emerged from her emotional journey. . . A revelatory exploration of the meaning of blackness.” — Kirkus Reviews
Electric Literature
"In Wandering in Strange Lands, Jerkins mixes reportage with personal reflection, taking readers through Southern spaces not often given visibility by those inhabiting or those who built the towns because they’ve since seen another type of colonization. Connecting her present with her past and investigating the ways DNA for Black people is not secular but spans many regions in the United States, Jerkins delves into a family history she didn’t understand but brings herself, and us, closer to."
the Oprah Magazine O
"Wandering in Strange Lands intertwines segments of past and present travel, as a reminder that the past is present in the U.S."
USA Today
"Jerkins weaves a vivid and painful backstory of Black people forced into enslavement in the American South. . .The book is filled with poignant examples from across multiple centuries, including those retold in classrooms and those relegated to forgotten parts of our country's consciousness. . .It's when Jerkins sews her familial threads with those poignant historical facts from deep in the archives of America that the book is most impactful. Equally heartbreaking and reaffirming are the trials and tribulations too many Black people in the United States have faced and somehow conquered, coming out more resilient on the other side."
Vogue
"The mass migration of 6 million Black Americans from the rural South to the North, West, and Midwest is given a deeply personal framing by writer Morgan Jerkins as she attempts to better understand her ancestors’ treacherous journey across America."
Ms. Magazine
"Jerkins evades [the sophomore] slump with the release of her second book, [Wandering in Strange Lands] penning beautiful prose that is engaging, thought-provoking, and authentic. Following the release of her 2018 New York Times bestseller, This Will Be My Undoing, Jerkins hits another home run and leaves her readers asking new questions about the world in which we live."
New York Times Book Review
Wandering in Strange Lands is in many ways a quintessentially American story. . . Jerkins makes plain that denying space for Black identities in history is itself a legacy as American as its original sins of racism and enslavement. By exploring the truth of that past with such integrity, this memoir enriches our future."
Elle
"Traveling throughout the country, [Jerkins] explores the path her family took as well as her cultural identity as a black woman. Her desire to understand both her personal and cultural origins will inspire you to do the same."
PopSugar
"Wandering in Strange Lands is a timely and riveting story about the Black American experience as told by a writer seeking to reclaim her roots by retracing her family's journey."
Hello Giggles
"Morgan Jerkins has always been curious about her family tree and the roots of Black Americans. In 'Wandering in Strange Lands,' she traces her ancestry back 300 years and shares what she learned about the Great Migration, displacement, and disenfranchisement. The result is an eye-opening, well-researched portrait of Black life in America after slavery."
Booklist (starred review)
A thrilling, emotional, and engaging ride that almost commands the reader to turn the page, Wandering in Strange Lands is required reading, accurately widening the lens of American history.
Bust Magazine
"For fans of “The 1619 Project,” The New York Times Magazine’s series that recently reexamined the legacy of slavery in the United States, this book is an interesting companion piece. For a long time, Jerkins’ family chose to look forward, not back. But what she found when she finally did retrace their steps was her true self. It had not been forgotten; it was just waiting to be discovered."
Book Riot
"A blend of reportage and memoir, this is just one story of many of this time—and one not to miss when it comes out."
USA Today
"Jerkins weaves a vivid and painful backstory of Black people forced into enslavement in the American South. . .The book is filled with poignant examples from across multiple centuries, including those retold in classrooms and those relegated to forgotten parts of our country's consciousness. . .It's when Jerkins sews her familial threads with those poignant historical facts from deep in the archives of America that the book is most impactful. Equally heartbreaking and reaffirming are the trials and tribulations too many Black people in the United States have faced and somehow conquered, coming out more resilient on the other side."
ELLE
"Traveling throughout the country, [Jerkins] explores the path her family took as well as her cultural identity as a black woman. Her desire to understand both her personal and cultural origins will inspire you to do the same."
Kirkus Reviews
2020-02-05
A family’s story reflects African Americans’ struggle for survival.
Driven by a need to understand her own identity, cultural critic Jerkins mounted an investigation into her family’s tangled history, recounting in this candid memoir the surprising discoveries that emerged from her emotional journey. Like many African Americans, her ancestors fled the South—and oppression from the Ku Klux Klan and police—some settling in the Northeast, others in California, disrupting their ties to their cultural and spiritual heritage. “No one spoke about the past—the goal was to move forward and never look back,” she writes.” This silence, though, frustrated Jerkins, leading to a search “to excavate the connective tissue that complicates but unites us as a people, and to piece together the story of how I came to be by going back and looking beyond myself.” Traveling to Georgia, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Los Angeles, she traced her lineage, seeking answers to questions that had bothered her throughout her life: Why, for example, was she taught to be afraid of water? Why did her family believe in conjuring, spells, and hoodoo? And, critical to her sense of self, why was she so light skinned, a trait that raised others’ curiosity, as if a child with lighter skin than her parents “was an aberration in the natural order of things.” Everything she learned underscored the power of white supremacy in the U.S. She found out that although the Jerkins family grew up near water, it was not necessarily a conduit to freedom but, more ominously, a place where blacks were drowned. On the lush resort island of Hilton Head, she realized that “beautiful landscapes masked black carnage.” From a historian, she was dismayed to learn the prevalence of black slave owners: “In 1830, in twenty-four states…there were 3,775 black owners of 12,760 slaves.” Although her search sometimes proved unsettling, in the end, Jerkins was able to “tease out the interwoven threads of who I am as a black woman.”
A revelatory exploration of the meaning of blackness.
